321

MISCELLANEA

49.300 Letters and Letter-writing.

The composition of letters did not develop into an important branch of literature in Java, as it did in some other countries. The contents of Javanese letters is prosaic and matter-of-fact, and the texts are not long. The letters provide valuable material for the study of the Javanese prose style, however. Since the beginning of the seventeenth century a great number of official letters has been sent by Javanese rulers to Dutch officials in Semarang and Batavia. As a rule, until the end of the eighteenth century, the recipients’ knowledge of written Javanese was deficient, so the letters were translated into Dutch, or provided with Dutch para phrases, by official translators, who probably in many cases were men of mixed blood. The originals were not always well preserved. As a consequence original Javanese letters dating from the period before 1800 are rare. Manuscripts containing Old Javanese let ters are not found in the collections. Balinese letters, however, mostly written on palm- leaves, abound, but they are beyond the scope of the present book. It seems to> have been the rule in Bali to use the Balinese ver nacular in letters, both private and official, the Javanese-Balinese idiom being reserved for literature in the strict sense of the word. In the General Index codexes containing relevant information are listed under the catchword letters.

49.310 Collection of original 17th century letters (Maetsuycker administration): cod. KNAW 98. 49.320 Collection of original 18th and early 19th century letters (Alting administration) : cod. 2237, 11.080. 49.330 Collection of 18th century letters, official copies, West Java: cod. KITLV H 423 (portfolio 1 miscellanea). 49.340 Letter of susuhunan Amatjku Rat IV of Kartasura, 1725 A.D., original: cod. 6249. 49.400 Original Nineteenth Cen tury Letters. In the nineteenth century the Dutch officials’ knowledge of things Javanese increased. In the Indian Civil Ser vice training colleges in The Netherlands attention was paid to a practical knowledge of Javanese epistolary style. Original letters were collected in great numbers to serve as material for study. Some collections of original letters, containing various types of Javanese script, were published in litho graphic facsimile (reproduction by way of photographic processes was not yet possible at the time) in order to give the students some material they could work upon. 49.410 Collections of original early 19th century letters: cod. 2167, 2168,2235, 5533,6205a, KITLV Or 252, Br KMA 49410.